Spatial Analysis of Land Cover Changes in Eastern Tigray (Ethiopia) from 1965 to 2007: Are There Signs of a Forest Transition?

This paper examines whether eastern Tigray is still in a phase of land degradation or if a trend of landscape greening has started. Hitherto, the land cover in five representative Tigray villages was mapped for three different periods: 1965, 1994, and 2007. These maps were based on the interpretation of aerial photographs and high-resolution satellite imagery in combination with field validation. The results show a strong decrease of the forest and bush land in favor of arable land and rangeland from 1965 to 1994. This trend is, however, slowed down and even reversed from 1994 onwards whereby some of the arable land and rangeland are abandoned allowing shrubs and bushes to regenerate. Household interviews and census data showed that the rural population number is still increasing. However, the productivity of the farming activities did not show a significant increase. The observed abandonment of marginal farm and rangeland is, therefore, made possible only through food aid and the import of food from other regions. Furthermore, policymakers stimulate land abandonment and landscape greening by establishing exclosures. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.